volunteer / shadowing | dumb question for you veterans

[patrickd223]

I am going to start volunteering at the hospital in the wound care center next week. I will mostly be running around the office and getting things for patients etc. but they said I would get to see alot of treatments also. Can I count the time I see the treatments as shadowing and if so what do I do to get credit for it?

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[OncoCaP]

I am going to start volunteering at the hospital in the wound care center next week. I will mostly be running around the office and getting things for patients etc. but they said I would get to see alot of treatments also. Can I count the time I see the treatments as shadowing and if so what do I do to get credit for it?

I would count the volunteering & observation as volunteering. If you want to shadow a physician, you could probably arrange that with a physician at the hospital or elsewhere. Some campus organizations do a lot to set such opportunities up. In my entire set of applications, there may have been a few very brief mentions of shadowing (maybe just one word in the personal statement) but my interviewers seemed pleased. Just get the clinical exposure and experience so that you have an idea of what you are getting yourself into by going into medicine. You can always explain the details of what you experienced during interviews or perhaps mention it in your personal statement.

 

[BigRedPremed]

I am going to start volunteering at the hospital in the wound care center next week. I will mostly be running around the office and getting things for patients etc. but they said I would get to see alot of treatments also. Can I count the time I see the treatments as shadowing and if so what do I do to get credit for it?

So your 5 hours of volunteering is going to be counted as 5 hours of volunteering and 5 hours of shadowing

Unless you are specifically following a physician around and asking him questions, I wouldn't call it shadowing.